Our Company

Welcome to HLS Linen Services. We maintain over 100 different products processing 72,000 pounds of linen per day, 22 millions pounds each year. That is 11 million tons per year! It is set up so linen moves from South to North as it is processed. Soiled linen is dropped off at the receiving dock and is moved to cart dumpers who unload the linen onto conveyor belts. The linen moves to an upper lever where teams sort the linen by type, dropping it into designated hoppers. Bags located below the hoppers are programmed to move once they have reached a predetermined weight. When this happens, the hopper shuts; the bag is coded to identify the product inside, and then travels up a lift to the soiled linen holding area. A new bag takes the place of the previous one and the hopper opens to accept more linen.

A system operator stationed in the sorting area monitors bag movement. The system operator is also responsible for “calling off” the mix of linen being sent to the various washers. We have two basic types of washer extractors: a batch washer and a continuous batch washer.

Our continuous batch washers (also called tunnel washers) consist of 16 compartments. The first compartment is a pre-soak. The next 14 are washing, bleaching and conditioning compartments. The last one is the extractor press. Once the linen reaches the last area, a press comes down and squeezes the water out of the linen. The result looks like a thick cake or an enlarged aspirin tablet. Once two of these cakes are accumulated they move to the next available dryer.

Clean linen is now moved to the “clean side” rails. Here, different bags transport the linen to our Dryfold or Flatwork areas. All terry items are sent to the Dryfold area to be fed into our pneumatically driven folders. They then travel down a conveyor to an employee that places the linen on the carts.

All sheets and pillowcases are sent to the flatwork area. These items are processed wet but are dried as they move across the ironing chests. A folder on the back of the machine folds the sheet or pillowcase. An electronic eye on the sheet stackers recognizes the size of a sheet and sends it to the correct area. A cast member then takes the stacks of sheets or pillowcases and places them on a flowrack for shipping to customers.

Items that cannot be easily fed into machines for folding or that need to be separated by size and pattern such as bedspreads, mattress pads, crib sheets, and robes go to the Dryfold department.

Our Cart Makeup department works together to build and deliver our Customers’ orders on a daily basis. Several thousands of pounds of linen leaves our dock everyday. Using our fleet of 5 trucks, we deliver all the linen to our over 50 customers. We then pick up soiled linen and return it to the plant

It is hard to believe that all this happened in a 24 hour period. Now it is time to start the process all over again.

OUR MISSION

To meet the laundry and linen requirements of our customers through continuous improvement, innovation, leadership and technology in order to provide exceptional service & value while maintaining a viable, professional and diversified business.